PEPTIDE SYNTHESIZERS

The control and regulatory mechanisms for many biological processes are dependent on peptides and proteins derived from α–amino acids. In addition, many modern medicines are now produced from peptides or derivatives of peptides. A few examples are anti-cancer agents, antibiotics or peptide based drugs that control blood pressure. For these reasons, α–amino acids and peptide chemistry has become a central technology in organic chemistry, biochemistry, biotechnology and medicinal chemistry. Solid phase synthesis has become the major automated synthesis method or technology used for the production of synthetic peptides.

During solid-phase synthesis, molecules are bound on a bead and synthesized step-by-step in a reactant solution; compared with normal synthesis in a liquid state, it is easier to remove excess reactant or byproduct from the product. In this method, building blocks are protected at all reactive functional groups. The two functional groups that are able to participate in the desired reaction between building blocks in the solution and on the bead can be controlled by the order of deprotection. This method is used not only for the synthesis of peptides, but also for the synthesis of nucleic acids (e.g. DNA, RNA), oligosaccharides and other molecules that need to be synthesized in a certain alignment. Currently, solid-phase synthesis has became a widely used method in combinatorial chemistry.

The automation of solid phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) and the many improvements made in peptide synthesizers (peptide synthesis instruments) in recent years have made synthetic peptides and their derivatives more available to the scientific community and the biological industry as a whole. Synthetic peptides can be synthesized automatically using SPPS and used to manufacture epitope-specific antibodies, map antibody epitopes and study enzyme binding sites or to design and synthesize novel peptide- or protein-mimetics or even whole enzymes.